North America, paragon of diversity, is gone. From its ashes, a new nation has arisen – Renatus – where the government segregates the surviving population into races, forbidding interracial marriage, mating, and love.

Eighteen-year-old Nazirah Nation is a pariah, an intermix, born of people from different races. When her parents are murdered in the name of justice, Nazirah grudgingly joins the growing rebellion fighting against the despotic government.

Overwhelmed with grief, consumed by guilt, Nazirah craves vengeance as a substitute for absolution. But on her journey to find the girl she once was, Nazirah must learn the hard way that nothing … no one … is purely black or white. Like her, every human is intermix, shades and hues of complex emotions. And those who can take everything away are also the ones who can give everything back.

Review

I received this book for free from Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Wow! Let me get one thing straight, I enjoy Dystopian Romance novels. The first one that I ever read was The Hunger Games, and I’ve been hooked on the genre ever since. But that’s probably why I always find myself comparing every Dystopian novel that I read to the one that started it all for me. Sometimes, that can keep me from really getting into the story because every time I find and obvious similarity, I become bored. Thankfully that didn’t happen this time! The only thing that this book has in common with The Hunger Games is the fact that the story is told from the point of view of a teenage girl who lives in a dystopian society. That’s it! Every other element of this book felt new and fresh!

Our story starts off with four simple words:

“Nazirah Nation is dead”

Thousands of years ago a group called the Medis came into power, and they decided that all of the world’s problems could be resolved by no longer allowing people of different races, classes, religions, and cultures to coexist. So the Medis divided them all into separate territories. Those who chose to enter into a relationship with someone from a different territory were cast from their homes and forced to live in poverty for the rest of their lives

Nazirah Nation has lost almost everything simply because she had both the fortune and misfortune of being the product of an intermix relationship. Gabirel the Chancellor of the Medis has Nazirah’s parents killed, and she is sent to live on a rebel base and forced to work alongside Adamek, Gabirel’s son and the man who murdered her parents.

Nazirah reluctantly becomes the face of the uprising. Her willingness to work with Adamek so they could accomplish their shared goal of removing his father from power was admirable. She got a reputation as a stuck up princess that I’m not sure she deserved. It’s true that she wasn’t the only one who had lost people that she loved, but she wasn’t blind to the pain of others; she was drowning in grief. Sure she had her best friend Cato, but he was almost the only person in her life who ever gave her any real sympathy and compassion.

Adamek, was very different from the leading man I’ve read before. He wasn’t the typical “bad boy”, and he wasn’t misunderstood or nicer than he let on. He was a murderer and there was no sugar-coating that fact. From the beginning it was clear that he was a man who had done some awful things, and decided, for his own reasons, to stop. I never once thought he felt justified in his past actions, but he confused me. I kept waiting for him to express the remorse and shame that he felt because of all the lives that he had taken including Nazirah’s parents, but it took him a while. I knew he was in pain: He just internalized everything and suffered his shame in silence. On the outside he was a cocky jerk who kept pushing Nazirah’s buttons. He kept her going by provoking her over and over again, but I knew why he did it so I never hated him.

The romantic elements of Nazirah and Adamek’s relationship would have been weird if they weren’t so well suited for each other. There was a need and attraction they had for each other that went so deep; their lives would have been unbearable if they didn’t have each other to fight and flirt with. It was as though the fact that he had taken her parent’s life forged a bond between them. It’s hard to explain, but the author pulled it off. They don’t fall in love at first sight, andI’m still not sure when they stopped hating each other. All I know is that they had a connection that manifested itself in all sorts of entertaining and beautiful ways from day one. Some of the moments that they shared were romantic, some were funny, others were downright violent, but no one else could have handled them the way that they handled each other.

At its heart, Intermix Nation is not just a Dystopian Romance; It’s a study on forgiveness, prejudice,and acceptance redemption. It ask the hard questions what you would be willing to do to make your life count for something, and how much could you forgive. Both Nazirah and Adamek have to fight some strong internal battles while trying to end the war that is raging around them. They hate themselves, they hate each other, and they hate the world; but the one question that constantly arises throughout the book is whether or not they can overcome their hatred and pain long enough to fight for their right to live and live happily. Should Nazirah forgive Adamek for killing her parents just because he understands her better than anyone else? Can Adamek forgive himself for all the lives he’s destroyed? If they love each other, would that be wrong or do they deserve to have some happiness in a world where it can so seldom be found? You’ll just have to read the book if you want to know the answers. 🙂

.The fact that this was a Dystopian stand alone (not apart of a series of novels) was one of the things that first attracted me to this book, that’s very rare. Now that I’m finished, I’m sad that I won’t be able to continue with the story and how its characters grow. The ending was satisfying, but author could write another story if she really wanted to. [crosses fingers] If she doesn’t, then I’ll just have to make it a point to read this again, and that’s something that I rarely do.

I would recommend this book to fans of dystopian novels, but get ready to read something that you’ve never read before!

This book is suitable for ages 16 and up because of language, some minor violence, and one slightly detailed sex scene.

Five Roses

Author Biography

About M.P. Attardo

M.P. Attardo is a twenty-something, part-time writer, full-time daydreamer. She has a college degree … is still trying to figure out what ever to do with it. She loves amateur baseball commentating, heckling, and overindulging. And putting her bizarre, gritty thoughts into words for all to read.